Olympians Finally Sluggishly Apologize the Last Supper Burlesque
The Paris 2024 organizing committee has apologized to Catholics and other Christian organizations for upsetting them with a scene at the opening ceremony that featured drag queens, a transgender model, and a singer dressed as the Greek god of wine, evoking Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of The Last Supper.
The goal of the parody of the biblical scene was to interpret Dionysus and bring attention to “the absurdity of violence between human beings,” according to the organizers’ post on X.
The performance incited outrage among Catholics, Christian organizations, and conservative politicians worldwide, forcing the committee to issue an apology.
“Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. [The opening ceremony] tried to celebrate community tolerance,” the Paris 2024 spokesperson Anne Descamps told a press conference. “We believe this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offense we are really sorry.”
The Catholic church in France said it deplored a ceremony that “included scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity”.
One of the French bishops’ delegates to the Games, Monsignor Emmanuel Gobilliard, claimed that the controversy’s aftermath had caused sleeplessness in a number of French athletes.
The most senior Catholic official in Malta and a representative of the Vatican’s influential doctrinal office, Archbishop Charles Scicluna, claimed to have complained about the “gratuitous insult” to France’s ambassador in Valletta.
What was supposed to be a celebration of French culture took an “unexpectedly negative turn, becoming a parade of banal errors, accompanied by trite and predictable ideologies,” according to the Italian bishops’ conference.
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